As you all know, the passage of Senate Bill SB231 changed the renewal process for tractors and low speed utility vehicles as of August 25, 2014. The change requires all customers with tractor plates (TRAC) due for renewal to visit their Town offices in person in order to determine if a vehicle qualifies to receive a low speed utility vehicle plate (SCOMM) or a tractor plate (TRAC).

Last week, we sent out a blog post that informed you of the changes. We also contacted you individually to import a script that alerted you with a Post-It note of any tractor plates that were due for renewal in the month of September. However, we still have eleven months of tractor plate renewals which we need to address. We have created a script that will help you comply with the new law, but it is important that you not send out your October renewal notices until we have contacted you and implemented this script. We will be contacting you within the next week.

Here’s what you need to know going forward:

When producing monthly renewal notices, there are several notice selections. One of the selections requires special handling (i.e National Guard, Active Duty, and Parental Consent) because this requires the customer to have additional information to renew their registration. With this in mind, owners with tractor plates are required to renew their registration in person. So, we have included tractor plate renewals within the special handling (i.e. National Guard, Active Duty, and Parental Consent) section.

We have also added a message to the tractor plate renewal notices that reads “TRACTOR Plate Classification Review Required — MUST RENEW IN PERSON”. This will indicate to the customer that they can only renew this in your office. As we all know, some customers do not fully read the notices. So here are some suggestions to bring the statement to their attention:

Once you have printed the special handling renewal notices, on any renewal notice with a tractor plate, highlight the message “TRACTOR Plate Classification Review Required — MUST RENEW IN PERSON”.

Include with the tractor renewal notices an additional document stating the change in the law which requires them to renew in person.